DEPORTATION TO THE DERWENT. 



23 



Bay, but the greater part were fixed some 20 or 30 miles up 

 the river, at a new settlement which, in memory of their old 

 home, was called New Norfolk. The sudden accession of over 

 300 people to a small community which did not number 500 

 was a great strain on Collins' resources. His supplies were 

 scanty enough, and when he learned that still more people were 

 coming, and that he was to have thrust him upon more than 

 double the number which Bligh had led him to expect, he 

 was loud in his complaints both to the Home Authorities and 

 to Sydney at the want of thought with which he had been 

 treated. 



In the meantime a little revolution had taken place in 

 Sydney. Governor Bligh had been deposed by the officers 

 of the New South Wales Corps, and the government had been 

 assumed by Colonel Johnston. The work ot removal from 

 Norfolk Island was then pushed on even more rapidly. 

 Colonel Johnston chartered the City of Edinburgh, a vessel 

 of 500 tons, to remove the rest of the' settlers. The deposed 

 Bligh, in his despatches to the Secretary of State, protested 

 strongly against the folly of crowding a host of people into a 

 settlement so ill prepared to receive them, a proceeding which 

 must, he foresaw, involve the whole population at the Derwent 

 in great distress. 



Already there were loud complaints from the Norfolk 

 Islanders of the hardships they had had to endure, so different 

 from what they had been led to expect from the representations 

 made to them when they left the island. Many of them were 

 in the most destitute condition, and were glad to compound 

 their claims against the Government by taking a few live 

 stock as compensation for the houses and "effects they had left. 

 Probably, however, their own improvident habits were their 

 worst enemy. Foveaux states that a ship named the Rose, 

 belonging to Campbells, of Sydney, had touched at the Der- 

 went on her way from England. In direct contravention of 

 his orders from head quarters Collins allowed the Captain to 

 land several thousand gallons of spirit for sale. He further 

 permitted it to be sold to the new arrivals, who parted with their 

 little store of salted pork to the Government store to raise 

 money to purchase the spirits. Thus, many in a few days 

 dissipated the whole of their small means of subsistence. 



The City of Edinburgh sailed from Sydnev to remove the 

 rest of the settlers on the 26th May, 1808 ; "she met with a 

 succession of heavy gales, and was repeatedly blown off the 

 island, so that she did not complete her loading for more than 

 three months ; she sailed from the island on the 9th September, 

 carrying 226 people to the already overcrowded settlement at 

 the Derwent, where she arrived on the 2nd October. The 

 unfortunate people suffered much on the long voyage of nearly 



